A reference number is any combination of letters and numbers up to 35 characters that you assign to a package when you ship it. This reference number could be a purchase order number, a customer's job number or a group of words that identifies that shipment -- such as "10 widgets" or "gift for mum."

More than one shipper may use a particular purchase order number or the phrase "10 widgets" as a reference. When you track by reference number, you can narrow the search for your particular package using four additional qualifiers.

Date Range: By entering more restrictive from and to dates, you narrow the search to dates closer to your shipment. The default is 30 days before today's date.

Yes. You may also track your packages by their UPS tracking number -- either on-line or by e-mail. If you are a registered My UPS user, you can import tracking numbers from a spreadsheet application, and UPS will e-mail you the results or save them to a data file.